Best of the Festival - Berkeley Video & Film Festival 2005
Special Recognition in Documentary - Boston International Film Festival, 2004
Grand Prize, Providence Film Award, Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2004
”The Pursuit of Pleasure” is a lively documentary film challenging commonly held beliefs about female sexuality, gender roles, relationships, and satisfaction.Seven articulate, highly diverse women discuss marriage, celibacy, sexuality, sensuality, incest, gender roles, beauty, sisterhood, community, intimacy and work.
The women, ranging from a GenX midwife to a 94-year-old psychologist and sex therapist, offer varied perspectives on the evolution of Pleasure since the US Women's Movement began over 40 years ago.They are not high profile activists, but instead real women whose lives are affected by changes in society.
The film intertwines in-depth candid interviews, historical footage, family photos and original music to create a riveting exploration of some of life’s major issues: These women interrogate Pleasure and examine our core desires: joy, physicality, friendship, food, leisure, nature and privacy.
Recent research suggests that women may be having less sex today than women did in the 1950's. Increasingly, women rate self-knowledge, efficacy, communication, emotional closeness and connection higher than hot sex.The ultimate question posed to the women interviewed in the film is whether intimacy and pleasure without sex is just as satisfying as it's more advertised opposite, sex without intimacy.